Wednesday, July 09, 2008

a year ago, marion county republicans couldn't stop talking about crime. they counted off every murder with delight, imagining that then-mayor peterson was somehow at fault. the foundation of then-candidate ballard's campaign was that he would put IMPD under his control, and together they would put an end to crime in the region.

this year, things are different. mayor ballard is the head of IMPD. the murder rate hasn't gone down—we've been averaging a murder a day for the past couple weeks. and the rate of crime committed by cops has seemingly gone up infinity percent.

now that their guy is in charge and things haven't gotten any better, you'd think republicans would be singing a different tune. in a sense they are, but really their song is exactly the same: six months into mayor ballard's administration, and they're still blaming everything on bart peterson and sheriff anderson.

yesterday, marion county democrats issued a press release demanding that the mayor do something about, you know, his signature issue, and complaining that he has been "oddly quiet about the mounting problems" facing IMPD.

cue abdul, official mayoral apologist, proponent of "police beatings", and the one person who was complaining the loudest about crime last year (though he did so anonymously under the name "joe friday"). today abdul responded to the dem press release, in his usual vapid style: he blames all IMPD's problems on the former administration, and providesthreelinks as proof that the mayor has "spoken out" about IMPD's problems.

"I had a good-sized meeting this morning with [Public Safety Director Scott Newman] and senior officers and we talked about what's happening," Ballard said.

oh, they had a meeting and talked about it! i feel so much better now. but wait! there are more ballard quotes near the bottom:

"We want the neighbors to help out the police. We want these people off the street," Ballard said.

[...]

The nine murders in an eight-day stretch has the mayor putting renewed importance on the "Peace in the Streets" campaign.

"I'm hoping that [the Peace in the Streets initiative] becomes part of the community, that people understand that. I'm hoping to get yard signs and signs all over the city and the message itself so that people understand we don't want to go there. I'm hoping - we'll never know obviously - somebody may be thinking of doing something wrong in a domestic situation or whatever - and they say - no, we have peace in the streets," Ballard said.

see, the mayor does have a plan to address crime! he wants to put up a whole bunch of yard signs—i mean lots and lots of them, not just a few—and those signs are going to make people stop committing crimes somehow! brilliant!

"The weather promises to be hot and there's a lot of things the people with free time and hot temperatures can do that are harmful", said Ballard, " and I would be remiss if I didn't express my concern."

this seems to be an extension of the yard sign program. all the criminals are going to think about mayor ballard expressing his concern, and that will inspire them to stop their law-breaking ways. but wait, there's more:

Ballard, along with Public Safety Director Scott Newman, IMPD Chief Michael Spears, members of the Concerned Clergy and representatives of Peace In The Streets, discussed the recent rash of violent crime in the city and the arrest of several police officers.

Ballard, Newman and Spears all pointed to the fact that the arrest of those officers were the result of IMPD investigations and new policies will be announced soon on how the department plans to deal with it in the future.

it might be comforting to think that all the cops who've been arrested recently were busted by fellow IMPD officers, but it's not accurate. some were, but half of them were nabbed by the FBI... as is made clear by...

"I'm very much disgusted and outraged at the conduct of a small number of officers who chose to disrespect the trust that the public has in them," said Indianapolis Metro Police Chief Michael Spears.

"Nobody likes for this thing to happen, but it's important that it's rooted out," said Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard.

only one ballard quote this time around, and it's one sentence long. maybe in abdul's world, a one-sentence quote in a news article counts as leadership.

maybe someone could sit abdul down and teach him how to use a dictionary. because "oddly quiet" doesn't mean "completely silent". the mayor may have spoken once or twice about IMPD in the past month, but his statements have been rambling and, more importantly, devoid of substance. if anything, abdul's links prove how worthless the mayor has been on this issue. this was his signature issue, and yet nothing has been improved, and on those rare occasions someone with a camera asks him about them, he simply expresses his "concern" or talks about yard signs, or tries to blame it on the prior administrations. how pathetic.

bonus abdul: abdul claims to be "somewhat surprised" that there hasn't been a "bigger public outcry" about the recent rash of murders, and speculates that the reason is because the victims have all been po' folks. of course, he's being disingenuous here. he doesn't mention that last year, in the guise of "joe friday", he was complaining louder than anyone. so tell us, adbul: why aren't you complaining about crime this year? could it be because you you only used the issue for political reasons to attack a democratic mayor, and now that there's a republican in charge, you don't care about crime or murders anymore? ¶

Oh, come on Abdul..this is nothing but a partisan political rant on your part and your sudden silence on the failings of Ballard's IMPD is just as partisan. Ballard is doing a damn thing and doesn't know what to do and everyone knows it. He is too busy working on his plan to build a Chinatown on the south side.

Some Peace In The Streets signs on the west side are being repurposed to read Blood In The Streets by a group of enterprising taggers. I'll get a shot of one if I can and pass it along.

Abdul is as ridiculous as Ballard but thankfully without a smidge of power or influence. Oh no wait, that could be said of Ballard too. Anyway, when I catch his radio show, which is not very often and always only briefly, he and his guests rival Bob & Tom for lunacy. Without meaning to, without the good will and certainly without the ratings, that is.

Sometime in August Mayor Greg Ballard will be meet with a few local pastors to discuss funding programs dealing with crime fighting (prevention and intervention). Some of the discussion has already occurred with a list of FOB (Friends of Ballard) being created by Deputy Mayor Williams and the Front Porch Alliance Director. This list only include pastors who agree to the following:

1) Play nice during Black Expo (No criticism of the Mayor or his staff during Black Expo)

2) Distance themselves from Amos Brown and Radio One and if they do appear to speak non-negatively about the Ballard Administration.

3) Allow the Mayor and his staff access to their churches periodically during the remianing years to talk positively about the grant dollars given to them by Ballard, in support of their program.

4) Embrace the "Peace in the Streets" program and coordinate all crime fighting efforts supported by the grants with the Christamore House to assure a consistant message. No a bad plan really.

So if you want to get on the list talk to Deputy Mayor Olgen Williams, but you need to be sly about it because officially the list doesn't exist.